The British Library has announced its key strategic priorities for the next three years. The new strategy describes the principal features of a rapidly-evolving research and information landscape, and outlines how the Library plans to further develop existing strengths and seize new opportunities to enhance its proposition to researchers and business. The strategy can be viewed online at www.bl.uk/aboutus/stratpolprog/strategy0811/index.html. A printed version of the document is also being circulated to a wide range of stakeholders.
Over the past three years the Library has developed specialist curatorial expertise along disciplinary lines, focusing on the particular characteristics and needs of researchers according to discipline. This disciplinary focus will continue with the implementation of the Library's content strategy for Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences researchers, and also by developing a content strategy for Science, Technology and Medicine.
The British Library's seven strategic priorities of 2008-11 include: capture extensively and store UK digital publications; connect users with content; transform access and preservation for newspapers; support UK research with innovative services and integrated processes; build digital infrastructure; integrate storage and preservation of physical collections; and develop as an organisation.
To address the growth of research that cuts across disciplines, the Library will develop an interdisciplinary focus, which will facilitate research in areas ranging from lifelong well-being to migration and population change. To do this, the Library will review the research landscape to identify areas of interdisciplinary growth, and build virtual communities to support and sustain collaborative cross-disciplinary research.
